


Train Tracks and Slow Starts

by LachrymoseLake



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Conversations, F/F, Fluff, Implied Bullying, Inner Dialogue, Mentions of Blackwell, Other, POV Third Person Limited, Pre-Relationship, Random & Short, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, They/Them Chloe Price
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:22:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28926489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LachrymoseLake/pseuds/LachrymoseLake
Summary: “That wasn’t in my head, was it.”“No.”“...How much of that wasn’t in my head?”“Too much.”“I thought so…”
Relationships: Rachel Amber/Chloe Price
Kudos: 3





	Train Tracks and Slow Starts

Breath was just starting to even out, heartbeats calming. It had been a total of two minutes since their rushed steps had crunched on the gravel and now? Now it was awkward. Rachel could feel it, they could  _ definitely _ feel it. She was not okay with it, they seemed fine with the silence. That would soon change. 

Rachel mentally cracked her knuckles and immediately winced. With her tongue clicking from behind her top lip, she began with false confidence.

  
  


“So, this is fun.” She cleared her throat, flicking her hair and to face her new friend. “So… So! Two truths and a lie? Proven material for the perfect get-to-know-you afternoon.”

“Has anyone ever told you, you would make a great telemarketer?” They queried,  _ deflected, _ with a tinge of something unsavoury in their voice. Their hands thrust in their jean pockets and shoulders hunched.  _ Uncomfortable _ . Rachel could fix that. She tucked a stray wisp of fog frosted hair behind her ear and gave a shrug.

“It's never come up. I think I’d be better in the door to door service if I had to choose outreach retail as my life path. But then, if retail is my only life path, I guess I need to be evaluating my life.” She said with an almost natural-sounding laugh.

“There’s nothing wrong with retail.” They defended and  _ oh, that hit a sore spot.  _ Rachel quickly shifted gears with another easy laugh and light explanation.

“Of course not. I just don’t think that’s where I want to be spending my energy. That’s all.” She didn’t realise she had lowered her voice soothingly until they shot her a guarded look.  _ Dial it back, Rachel. Don’t be creepy. You don’t know them. _

The silence crept back in, not even the Wilhelm scream of a flustered bird screeching across the misted sky could displace it. The tread of their feet on the worked and worn gravel tried, but they both fell into a pattern of stepping on the rail’s spokes where they lay rusted on the outsides of the track.

“So, two trut-” She was cut off by a whisper of a sigh, nearly missed. She tried not to look too shocked at the assertion from the stereotypical shy teen.

“What are you doing, Rachel?” They weren’t shouting, not by any means, but the tension was there. It shone through in the tight lines of their face and the squint of brown eyes.

“Well, I was going to say two truths-”

“No, Rachel, why are you here? Why did you pull me off campus and ‘stroll’ down here? I have classes, I have exams. What. Do. You. Want?”  _ Okay, huh, not one for chit-chat, great. Truly wonderful. Cool.  _ Rachel mused silently as she glanced sideways at them.

“I wanted to be...nice. Is that such a crime?”  _ Oh, oh wrong thing to say. Wrong, wrong.  _ Their eyes lit with a flicker of determined incredulity as they came to a stop.  _ Aport. Damage control. Houston we have technical difficulties!  _

“I don’t need you to be ‘nice’ to me. This is not nice. I don’t need your pity company. I don't need you.”  _ Wow, harsh. I'll just- you know what I'll just forgive that last part. I'll just- yeah.  _

Rachel did just that.

“It isn't pity, it’s just- I want to hang out with you.” They didn’t let her continue   
  


“No one wants to hang out with me.” Well, Rachel couldn’t dispute that, didn’t mean she couldn’t  _ try _ .

“That’s not true-”

“Yes. Actually, it is true.”  _ Okay, I can't even  _ try _ to dispute it, apparently.  _

Rachel propped her hands on her hips, shoulders hunched and features contorted in her ‘thinking face’ to a comical degree. She could admit it was a hilarious pose and usually afforded her a laugh. Not today.  _ Well, now I just feel stupid.  _ She dropped the pose, shoulders drooping and then… they just kept going as she flounced into a sitting position on the train track.

“Okay, Chloe. Sit with me a moment. Come come, sit. Sit, sit.” They hardly looked convinced, but hardly is still on the ups. She patted the rusted metal next to her, eyeing them solemnly through the reluctant eye-roll they presented her with as they shuffled into a less than comfortable sitting position opposite Rachel. 

_ Distance. I do love some distance while talking to people. Distance. Great, fine. You’ve got this Rachel. _

She didn’t got this. The only thing is they didn’t give her  _ that  _ much time to come up with something to constitute sitting down on the  _ incredibly narrow  _ tracks. 

“Well? I’m sat. I’m cold. I’m bordering on being pissed. Please attempt to convince me you aren’t hanging around out of pity so I can dismiss you and go back to school.”  _ Hey! With that attitude how am I meant to spontaneously come up with something to convince you?! No, keep your cool Rachel, cool. It's literally your middle name. _

A breath.

“Well, I had half of a convincing argument planned and then you went and said  _ that  _ so I don’t really want to share my  _ literal _ masterpiece.” cue ‘what can you do’ shrug. “If you’re not going to listen for the sake of not listening I can’t exactly make you listen.” A pause where she  _ really  _ tried to keep a straight face. “You hear me?” 

Her problem was not mirrored in theirs as they kept a blank, if lightly distasteful, look on their face.  _ Rude. _

“Clever.” Delivered at monotone? She would take it. 

“Thanks!”

“I was lying.” Monotone again. It was definitely their favourite of all the tones. 

“They say you lie to those you like.” She mused airily as she leant forward on her knees, itching to get closer to them because of  _ distance! It isn’t my natural state to be distanced! Darn you, train track. _   
  


“...who on earth has said that?” Monoton-  _ oh wait. Nope, that's definitely a tone. A whole tone, maybe disbelief? Curiosity? Disbeliosity? The third. Two in one, like rhubarb and custard boiled sweets. _

“People? Definitely people, yeah. People- okay, me. I say that.” On the positive side, her disparaging head and eye roll got the faintest flicker of a smirk.

“Now, if that isn’t a reason to stay, I don’t know what is.”  _ Is that sarcasm I hear, praise be the gods of forest fog and frustrated individuals, I have something to work with! _   
  
“Oh, you’re a funny person. I see.” She would be hard-pressed to miss the hardening of their features. _Hard-pressed_ . 

_ Never become a therapist, Rachel. Never. You would be terrible. Why did you think you could talk to them? Why did you believe it!?  _ Rachel firmly did not follow the tempting idea of spontaneous karaoke. Firmly. ‘Belief’ just fit into so many songs and she had a whole itinerary for occasions just like this.

“Please, refrain from enlightening me on such songs.”

“That wasn’t in my head, was it.” Not even Columbus could find the question in her voice.

“No.”

“...How much of that wasn’t in my head?” 

“Too much.”   
  


“I thought so…” The silence was back, it was like a creeping creeper from creep-vile that was a professional creeper. 

“Right. This has been awful, I will now have detention and a bruised backside. Goodbye Rachel.”

“Chloe, please!”

“You haven’t given me a reason to stay! We never talked before this morning, never even glanced at each other, and suddenly you’re pulling me out the back door and dragging me into the woods? Who does that?” All fair questions, all without answers. _ Darn you, poorly thought out plan and uncooperative participant. Operation talk until it works activated. Regrets: off.  _

“Okay, okay. So this morning Justin told me that he was seeing Dana and it kinda threw me cause Dana is one of my best friends and she never mentioned it and then Mr Pattensay emailed in to say homework was due a week later than it was posted as, so I had pulled an all-nighter and chugged several pints of caffeinated drinks to get through a presentation that wasn’t happening and then I got my peri- I mean I felt  _ sick _ … So I went to San and asked for some pain meds and all that normal stuff. 

“And basically the morning was just so  _ crazy _ , like, insane I don't even remember half of what happened up until Juliet called and said Zachary was missing and she was out looking. So then while I sat in class with Mrs Grant I saw those guys harassing you behind her back and I was like,  _ oh no you didn’t!  _ But in my head because of course, we were in lessons and, not that I wouldn’t stand up for y-  _ to them  _ on my own terms but I’m on scholarship, ya know? But I was mad ‘cause Zachary was making Juliet miss school so I kinda just let all the badness fester and I don’t think those jock asses realised I was staring at them because I wanted to slam their faces into a table, cause they kept smirking at me and winking which is just  _ ew! _

“Class ended and Juliet messaged to say Zachary was fine. And those douches seemed to be lingering worryingly so I panicked. Okay? I panicked! And I may have dragged you out here to get away from them and I totally wasn’t using you as protection cause no offence but you are kind of a favoured punching bag. But you know, maybe I could be the repellant. _Ew,_ no, wait. Repellant is a bad word. Deterrent? No, no, epic staff so no balrog shall pass. Yes, I can live with that. So anyway that’s why we’re here and I’m so sorry cause you don’t want to be here and we’re missing class and-”

The hand was unexpected. It landed on Rachel’s arm and made her skin leap embarrassingly off her bones. Looking up she saw them crouched  _ right  _ in front of her. She really hadn’t seen them move, or heard, or felt- since when were they stealthy? For the first time since she had seen them, they had a soft and admittedly very awkward smile on their face. Rachel couldn’t help but be oddly comforted by it, and certainly couldn’t help but return it.

“Okay,” Their voice softer than she had heard yet, “two truths and a lie. You go first. Just,” Here they rolled their eyes with a huff, "stop saying all those... _words_."

Rachel smiled, she could try that. For a while at least.

**Author's Note:**

> It's just something random and short but I thought it was kinda characterful?
> 
> Anywho's, the lockdown is still going on for some, and things aren't back to pre-2020 anywhere, so I'm always open to chat if anyone needs <3


End file.
